Old School RuneScape is getting what Jagex claims is the MMO's toughest raid yet

Old School RuneScape, the ancient MMO that's still proving to be incredibly popular all these years later, is getting its fourth raid later this year: The Fractured Archive.

Revealed during the Winter Summit event over the weekend, The Fractured Archive is described as the game's "toughest one yet", and will allow between 2-8 players to take on a new collection of bosses deep underground. It will also be soloable, but doing so will prove quite daunting.

Set to release in late 2026, The Fractured Archive will require the completion of the Tears of Guthix quest. Initially, if your entire party dies against a boss the raid will reset, which should add an additional layer of difficulty to the shindig. Eventually, this will shift to a different system, where wipes incur penalties to the loot you get at the raid's conclusion.

That's not all announced during the summit. The game is getting a new limited-time League called Demonic Pacts. In this, players will be able to modify their usual journey over eight weeks. Through completing certain tasks, powerful pacts can be unlocked that flip the typical rules of the game on their head, and help you to collect unique rewards.

Finally, there's a new bovine-based boss that could be added to the game incredibly soon depending on whether the community approves it in upcoming polls. Aiming to be a new early game challenge, a Bull fight has been created in a Game Jam session and would bring with it a new quest, a bottomless milk bucket, cow slippers, and a cow pet if given the go-ahead by Old School RuneScape players.

Indeed it seems like there's a lot going on in this British MMO, which maintains a strong community all these years later. If you're curious as to why, you can read Eurogamer's interview with its developers here.